In 2011, the Boston Globe recognized the innovative power of the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) course developed at MIT. SICP revolutionized computer science education by emphasizing abstraction, general patterns, and function-as-data concepts using the Scheme programming language. Despite initial skepticism, SICP has endured for over 25 years, influencing textbooks, programming paradigms, and teaching methodologies. While some institutions, like Berkeley, continue to champion the SICP-based course, MIT has recently shifted to an applications-based curriculum utilizing Python. The impact of SICP extends beyond academia, with former students successfully applying its principles in the real world, challenging the notion of ivory-tower academics.
https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/sicp.html